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Our next morning On-Ramp starts tomorrow, Feb 8th at 6am. There is still room.
The Women’s Get-Some Challenge benchmark was yesterday. It was wildly wonderful. 26 women came in yesterday (8 bench marked on Tuesday) to see how many squats, situps, strict pushups, pushups for time, strict pullups and jumping pullups they could get done. Carl and I noticed many things about the bench mark: Firstly, an all women crew has mad skills when it comes to building energy and motivating someone to get one more pushup. This I LOVED!
Secondly, I think almost every single woman surprised herself with how much she could actually get done. This I DID NOT LOVE! Come on Sisters!!-imagine if you could surprise yourself like that at every workout. We all gotta get better at looking at each other and knowing there is one more rep within and just telling each other-you have it, you must do it.
 Dave, has the worst life doesn’t he?
Thirdly, it was so shockingly bad a** how many pushups some of our Goddesses can do that Carl suggested we might want to have a men’s challenge so they don’t get left behind (or was that “feel left out”?).
Fourthly, at dinner later that day, Carl and I observed that so many of the women we watched walk by us downtown did not have the vibe of the CrossFit Works’ women. We basically decided that all the women we saw yesterday morning at the benchmark had a certain ”je ne sais quoi” (Shannon, is that right?). You all have a certain beauty that comes from being strong and authentic. Solid in your own skin. You could genuinely offer support to each other and dig deep because you know yourselves and you have that to give to each other. When my ship goes down and I’m stranded on a desert island I’m gonna hope it is with you guys!
Fifthly, I know what I am talking about. Betty F. knocked out 9 dead hang pullups and although it might have a little to do with how hard she works and how strong she is, it mostly had to do with the fact that she DRESSED PROPERLY. Pink pirate shirt and pink leg warmers. I wonder if pullups are genetic?
Check out some of the top stats:
Heather: 14 strict pushups, 12 kipping pullups
Aimee: 28 strict pushups, 9 kipping pullups
Karen: 21 strict pushups, 7 kipping pullups
Danielle: 43 strict pushups!!, 5 kipping/deadhang pullups
Betty: 35 strict pushups, 9 deadhang pullups
I cannot wait to see what happens on April 10!! $340 in prize money will be at stake.
 Wes Kimball, CrossFit Austin
The older I get the more I contemplate the balance between serious and silly. In my younger days I was damn serious: worked super hard, studied hard, practised ecological living etc… Not to say I couldn’t appreciate a fun time, but I was serious. Once two small boys entered my life there were MANY reminders to not take myself too seriously. No matter how hard I try, for example, I cannot get them to be serious except about the absolute unwavering truth that a fart joke is hilarious every time. I try to remember to apply this to my CrossFit training as well and I hope that here at CrossFit Works we all try to strike a balance between serious training and training awesomeness. Man-in-charge at CrossFit Austin, Wes Kimball, is perhaps CrossFit’s authority on not getting too serious about yourself while becoming insanely strong, fast and powerful. Check this out from his bio:
“My goal for our gym is to be a place where good times and hard work collide head on, forging fun-loving folks into elite health and condition. Join me in the Circle of Awesomeness: Feel Good, Look Good, Play Good.”
We had a chance to meet Wes and workout with him at the Black Box Summit in Texas last fall, and when all the posturing and “I-know-more-than-you” got started amongst the lead minds in CrossFit, Wes and his “Training Awesomeness” motto was a good check on the scene. If you are up for a really good laugh, courtesy of Wes, look in the archives of Dutch Lowy’s blog for a little essay Wes wrote about the importance of training shirtless.
Also check your very own Dave Smith for some CrossFit-related amusement including Dave’s pants falling off. (my son was there, so I think it is family-safe although the long term effects remain to be determined) and Mike G. and Chauncey taking their resistance sprints totally straight-laced.
Never forget to have fun while you CrossFit. It is the only way you will ever become more Awesome.
Hey Hey Hey, check us out in the CrossFit Journal. Especially check out Andres and his awesome hand stand push ups!!
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_CFworks_Ding5PRE.mov
If I was in the Women’s Get Some Challenge and trained with Andres I’d be asking him how to do those!!
Alright, so maybe some of you were working on your 1RM Snatch or shaving a few dozen minutes off your “Murph” time. Maybe you were out partying, forgetting all about CrossFit. I was hanging out at the garage gym of the Trudinger-Smiths (that would be the 40+ Lisaanne who did both workouts at the Winter Open as Rx’d). Future CrossFitters of America were playing a game of Driveway Hockey . Remember how Coach Glassman, CrossFit’s founder said something about “learn and play new sports?” Here it is. ”Driveway Hockey”. I see a future version of this occurring in the gym sometime soon.
On February 12, Friday evening, at 7:30pm we will host an event whose connection to CrossFit is tenuous at best. I could try to say it is all about nutrition (which it is) or all about learning new sports (is dancing a sport?) or something, but mostly it is too have fun and make some good use of this enormously large space we have, the fabulous people we know, the talented clients we have and to celebrate a birthday…
 
I can’t imagine there is a single one of you at CrossFit Works that does not know Summer. You might not know that she and her husband Bruce teach dance classes in salsa and bachata among other things. Check them out at Salsa Soulseros. In addition to Summer you have two other fellow CrossFitters who are great dance teachers as well: the lovely Liz and Adrian (friend of the wall ball). Adrian and Liz have graciously agreed to help their
 
fellow CrossFitters get a little more passionately coordinated by starting off our evening with a bachata demonstration and lesson. If you don’t know what bachata is, I’m not the one to help (Liz, Adrian, Summer???), but I can tell you that it is beautiful, sexy and when you see it you’ll wish you could do it and your sweetheart will wish you could do it too. Bring your sweetheart and learn. After the lesson we’ll just have a regular old dance-anything goes. And we’ll have a Paleo dessert potluck. This dessert thing is to celebrate the 44th birthday of the young Carl Wells-co-owner of your Affiliate. As I’ve mentioned before Carl does everything unglamorous in our Affiliate. Keeps the books, pays the bills, picks up t-shirts and toilet paper, markets and tries desperately to teach me what a business is all about, as well as training his personal training clients. Most of you know that Carl has lost over 100lbs and that might be a hint for you that he really likes dessert. Turns out though, that although Carl is a “good Texas boy” as one of our early shared clients told me, he likes Paleo desserts just fine. We’ll help you out in the next few days with some ideas for your potluck offering (paper plates and napkins?).
Bring your friends and your family to dance and eat with us. Open to the public.
Saturday at 2:00 is the perfect way to show your friends and family the program that is getting you fit! We are hosting our first monthly Free Community Workout. If you are a current member this is your chance to get your friends and family in to see where you train and what you do. If you have been wanting to come in and meet us and see CrossFit Works, this is the perfect time.
The link below should give you the results for the Winter Open! Although I am not well known for my technical skills with the web site (thanks Chauncey).
Complete Results
  
  
For the second workout, here is how the Rx’d men did:
TJ Daya CrossFit Northwest Tucson 14:23
Brad DeCastro CrossFit Works 15:20
Sam Inman CrossFit Works 17:39
Mike Heinz CrossFit Works 18:28
Matt Murrany Wildcat CrossFit 18:30
Wayne Richard CrossFit Northwest Tucson 18:59
Will Valenzuela CrossFit Tucson 19:40
Kenny Taylor Independent 20:43
TJ Daya was simply amazing!
Thank you so much to everyone who came out and participated in the Winter Open yesterday! It was a completely fun day for all of us. It was just awesome to see the diversity of competitors. We all got to see how CrossFit is absolutely for everyone. One of the best moments for me was at the end of the day where nobody seemed to be too focused on finding out who the winners were!! Meeting other CrossFitters and doing it together seemed like the focus of the day. All of the spectators were awesome. We joked afterwards about how we maybe didn’t need to get chairs because everyone was on their feet cheering. We have many many photos coming to us in the next few days so keep checking for fantastic pictures. Before I highlight the winners I want to highlight the volunteers who gave the athletes a chance to be in the spotlight. Without all the volunteers and judges who helped us, there wouldn’t have been a competition to win! I want to especially thank the folks from CrossFit Northwest Tucson and from SWAT’s Crossfit Tucson as well as the members of the Trudinger-Smith garage crossfitting crew and Kevin Nichols for giving us a hand. And of course, to all my home-grown crew, you were awesome as always. Special special recognition to Sam Chavez, one of the sweetest guys in our gym, for taking all the heat from the cranky “I-can’t-walk-from-next-door” ballet Moms in the parking lot. That was an ugly spot to be in! Maybe they should stop in for some CrossFit so that a walk across the parking lot isn’t so daunting?
OK-now for the winners.
Scaled Version A
Jennifer Kwasny SWAT CrossFit Tucson 24:27
Matt Thrasher CrossFitWorks 26:39
As Rx’d
#3
Summer Sando CrossFit Works 29:47
Mike Heinz CrossFit Works 27:06
#2
Jenny LaCoss CrossFit Works 27:03
TJ Daya CrossFit Northwest Tucson 23:50
#1
Jenny Providence Wildcat CrossFit 23:21
Brad DeCastro CrossFit Works 22:33
We will post complete results when we have everything calculated, along with lots more pics.
First off, I have to congratulate Kate on making the www.crossfit.com CrossFit Journal today! Check it out.
If you are sporting a temporarily expanded midriff like Molly we’ll give you some Burpee modifications!
Yes, we will have coffee.
Registration and weigh-in begins at 7:00am. The first WOD will begin sharply at 8:00am. We will run a heat every 15 minutes, so this WOD will finish by 9:30. The second WOD will begin at 11:00am and the final heat for that workout will finish at 1:30. Please realize these are our best efforts at timing things and depend on everyone’s cooperation and everything going super smoothly! The top 5 male and top 5 female finishers from the first WOD will compete in the final heat of the day for WOD #2.
What to do during your break time?
Rest, stretch, roll. Eat, but not too much. Don’t eat anything you don’t normally eat and be careful of eating too much meat-kinda tends to hang around in the stomach a long time.
Parking is going to be tight. We can spill over into the church parking lot that is just on the south side of us, but please try to stay close to our building.
Feel free to bring some post-workout beverages to celebrate.
See you all tomorrow!!
With what turned out to be advantageous timing, we had a visit from Josh Courage (via Lance) who was enjoying a little Arizona time. Josh is an incredibly accomplished Washington DC Personal Trainer. You can look at Josh’s website to learn more about him because he has some very cool things planned for himself. Here is a snippet from his site:
Riding With Courage
In April of 2010 I will be riding my bicycle from San Francisco, CA to Washington, DC over the course of 30 days to raise $50,000 for the Children’s Miracle Network and Children’s Hospitals around America.
Josh graciously agreed to test run WOD #2 for the Winter Open, as prescribed. You can see a video of him doing the workout on his inspiring blog. Check it out and get excited! Thanks Josh. Come again and Best Wishes in April.
The Women’s Challenge is absolutely closed at this moment (7:20pm). I am letting a few of you stragglers in because we have been without internet for 36hrs and I couldn’t tell you it was full! We will convene on Feb 6 for your benchmark and I will choose an alternate date soon.
Check out the beautiful front squat from Christina F. who is in our PM On-Ramp. The front squat position is one of the most miserable undertakings for many new CrossFitters. Stick with it! Introduce yourselves to the folks in the evening On-Ramp if you have a chance: Gail (or Mom as some of us call her), Nancy, Christina, Juan, Christy, Nathalie, Jenny and Angelica. Especially say hello to Juan as he is holding down the Man end of the On-Ramp!
Daniel, Betty and Erik M. have bettered your CrossFit Affiliate. They had support from Andres, Bryon, Mike G. too. They spent several hours here today painting your new plyo boxes. Muchas Gracias! They look fantastic. It feels so nice to have your support as we prepare to host Tucson’s CrossFit community.
Workouts for the Winter Open.
Athletes must arrive in time for registration which opens at 7:00am. The first heat for WOD #1 will begin promptly at 8:00am.
WOD #1
3 rnounds:
8 ground-to-overhead (M-155/W-95)
Sprint with Med Ball (approx 200M) (M-20/W-14)
15 Pullups
12min cut-off
WOD #1 Scaled A
3 rounds:
8 ground-to-overhead (M-115/W-75)
Sprint with Med Ball (approx 200M) (M-20/W-14)
15 pullups
12min cut-off
WOD #1 Scaled B
3 rounds:
8 ground-to-overhead (M-115/W-75)
Sprint with Med Ball (approx 200M) (M-20/W-14)
15 jumping pullups
12min cut-off
Further scaling available as required.
WOD #2
8 rounds:
4 Deadlifts @ 1.5x bodyweight
8 Burpee Box Jumps (24″ M/20″ W)
12 Wall Balls (20-M to 10′ target/14 W to 8′ target)
Cut-off 22min
WOD #2 Scaled A
8 rounds:
4 Deadlifts @ 1.25x bodyweight
8 Burpee Box Jumps (24″ M/20″ W)
12 Wall Balls (20-M to 10′ target/14 W to 8′ target)
Cut-off 22min
WOD #2 Scaled B
8 rounds:
2 Deadlifts @ bodyweight
4 Burpee Box Jumps (20″ M/12″ W)
6 Wall Balls (20-M to 10′ target/14 W to 8′ target)
Cut-off 22min
Further scaling available as required.
Weigh-in will occur during registration. We will use your exact weight and follow traditional elementary school rounding rules to the nearest 5lbs.
Range of motions will be standard, but we will provide detailed range of motion instructions prior to the workout.
Scoring will be cumulative between the two workouts. We will follow the “Every Second Counts” format. Athlete with the lowest score at the end of the day will win.
By NOON on Thursday we must receive an email from you stating whether or not you will do the workouts as prescribed, or which scaled version you will do. If you are requesting further scaling, tell us, in your email what that scaling will be! Looking forward to it! Send your emails to: winteropen@crossfitworks.com.
Update on the Women’s Get-Some Challenge: As of noon today there are 3 spots left. This is an awesome group of women whose coaches are chomping at the bit to GET THEM SOME. Don’t miss out.
  GET MORE PUSHUPS GET MORE SQUATS
 GET MORE PULL UPS
 GET MORE CROSSFIT!!!
Hello there Women of CrossFit Works. At 12:01am Monday January 18 you can register to participate in our Women’s Get-Some Challenge. I am the Ring Leader for this Challenge because I’m the only coach here that will not have clients participating, since I don’t have my own clients!! No clients of my own = Women’s Challenge mastermind.
Here, at CrossFit Works, we are dedicated to creating an environment populated by kind, supportive, conscientious Tucsonans. We don’t want to have our “regular” vibe and then a “different” vibe for women. Our job is to get all of you women to dig deep and find your inner warrior-beast. I’ve noticed a slight difference in the amount of time it takes our men and our women to master the bodyweight gymnastics movements. I’ve noticed that we are a little too sweet and understanding about knee pushups and band pullups. For sure, if that is where you are today, then that is where your magic will happen. But if you’ve been there for months, something is amiss. Perhaps, in our efforts to lower the intimidation barrier, we’ve created a sense that it is acceptable to amble along for decades doing pushups on your knees. Well, damn it ladies. It isn’t!
I know you all. I know myself. I know my late 30s, early 40s CrossFitting Mama friends. I know you can get yourselves some good pull ups and some rock solid pushups. You’ve got to find the inner Warrior-Beast that’s all. You’ll get stronger. This has nothing to do with your fitness. This has everything to do with your teeth and claws. You women in that 9:00am class, you have to close your eyes as your workout starts and picture yourselves beating Mike Heinz in a push up contest. You have to picture him struggling to catch up, sad and out of breath. You women in Andres’ 5:30 class, you have to imagine yourselves mastering the kipping pullup so he doesn’t even know what to do with himself anymore. You women in Dave’s classes, gang up! Make it so one day Dave comes into my office and says woefully, “all the women in my class are just so much better at the bodyweight stuff than I am”. Seriously, the inherent magic and beauty of CrossFit is what it can do for generations of women and young girls who never thought they could do pullups and pushups like a maniac. Women are scarily strong, but only if we never give up. Teeth and claws. Warrior-Beast. Let’s do this thing. Let’s make CrossFit Works a gym full of women doing kipping pullups. Get ugly, sweaty, red-faced, swear, laugh, cry. It is totally righteous to burp, fart and throw-up occasionally (if you make it to the bathroom). You could win a prize…
Here is what to do. At the appropriate moment (after 12:01am on Monday Jan 18)send an email to womengetsome@crossfitworks.com. Tell me you want to participate. I will also have a clipboard in the gym for those of you who aren’t big on email. On February 6th, Saturday morning at 10:00am we will have the first benchmark workout. This is where I will establish your baseline. You must bring $10 in cash to put in our kitty. This is the prize money for our winners and the trainer whose athlete wins. For the next 9 weeks it will be up to you and your trainer to get better. There will be an alternative time for the initial benchmark, TBA. I will add a page to our navigation bar at the top of this website called “Women’s Work”, you can check it for inspiration. On Saturday April 10 we will redo the benchmark. Winning Grrrl is the one that shows the most improvement. Finally, the most important aspect of participating is to bring your sense of humor and your skull-and-crossbones workout out accessories. We have to attack these exercises from every angle. It is certain that pink argyle socks and a jolly roger improve one’s capacity to do pushups. I’ve tested this theory numerous times.
This Challenge is open to all our Women including personal training clients and all you women in the On-Ramp. I will take only 25 women, so don’t drag your feet.
3…2…1…”GET SOME!!”
Registration for the Winter Open is closed. We are full. We have 55 athletes registered to compete. Just thinking about seeing you all do your thing is exciting. Your workouts will be announced on Jan 19th and you will receive emails and instructions from us soon. Ummm, I still really need judges.
I love running the On Ramp. I love to talk about CrossFit so it is like a dream come true to have a group of new people every couple weeks that I get to talk CrossFit to. I also love, deeply, seeing someone transition form being tentative or nervous or really deconditioned or all three to being confident and strong and excited about the possibilities. This work I do, this job I have, is immensely gratifying. I like to test myself with all the new folks. I try to decide right away who will take to CrossFit like a lizard to a hot rock, who will need tons of coaxing like getting a chickadee to land in your hand for sunflower seeds, and who will give me the polite “tried your thing and it ain’t for me you nutty girl”. So, you all should look for Rosa in the AM On-Ramp. She is kinda quiet and we’ll have to be giving her a send off pretty soon because she is headed out to Basic Training, but Girl has got the marks of a future CrossFitter. Matt T. and I taught the box jump on Wed. I asked if anyone wanted to try the tall plyo box. No takers. Until Rosa volunteered. She jumped right up, landed on top, and fell off backwards, landing on her a**. Slightly terrifying and probably a little embarrassing. Alright, we carried on with our workout and I asked her at the end of class if she wanted to try again. All her fellow On-Rampers held their breath and Rosa jumped. She made it of course. No problem. Cool. Welcome to CrossFit Rosa.
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Dave, has the worst life doesn’t he?
